Hodgepodging the Hottest Collectible

The house is on fire!!
HUGE paper wasp nest in our apple tree.


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 She writes the questions;

we write the answers.

Plug them into your own blog post

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1. They say you learn something new every day. What did you learn yesterday?

I learned that tar is a collectible.
(It is, at least, for our grandson. He loves the stuff.)

And it reminded me of being a kid and collecting all kinds of junk
 that I'd take home and treasure:
Old keys
Rusty hinges
Broken glass
Rusty nails
Rocks
Etc.
 So fun!

2. Have you ever had a now or never moment? Elaborate.

I'm pretty sure that I've had several now or never moments, and they usually end up in never. And that's probably a good thing. In most cases. Except when I purchased my KitchenAid mixer. I had carted it around the store, put it back, carted it around the store some more, put it back, carted it around the store... and finally realized that I would kick myself later if I didn't purchase it while on sale. I actually did buy it and have never regretted it!

3.  April 25th is National Telephone Day. Do you still have a land line or have you gone mobile only? When you receive a text message do you respond immediately? Last time you turned your phone off?  In two or three sentences share with us a story/memory/incident from your childhood (or something current if that's too hard) where the telephone is featured.

I don't know why we still have a land line. I absolutely never answer it. I respond to text messages pretty soon after receiving them. I turn off my phone whenever an app gives me problems. I will turn the ringer off and ignore my phone. I also keep my phone downstairs at night. My Kindle is what accompanies me to the bedroom. 

I think I've mentioned this before, but when I was a kid, the neighborhood phones were on a party line. And that meant that everyone on the line would hear everyone else's phone ringing. You had to listen for your particular ring. I think we were supposed to be on some sort of honor system and not listen in to other people's phone calls. However, we had a neighbor lady who would listen in on everyone's conversations to get the inside scoop on the neighborhood business. She always knew everything about everyone. I know that's more than two or three sentences, but you just try telling that story in fewer words.

My parents used this particular phone and its twin (an antique even at the time, I think) 

 to call between the house and barn. I hope I'm not making that up. At least that's how I remember it.

4. Close call, at someone's beck and call, call the shots, call a meeting, call it quits, call in sick, call on the carpet, wake up call...which call have you 'heard' recently? Explain.

Maybe 'wake up call,' for I have two grandsons with me for the next two weeks and yesterday morning they both appeared at my bedside at 5:30 AM. That was a tad early for me to get up. And they probably wouldn't have padded quietly into my dark bedroom if they hadn't seen the faint glow from my Kindle, which was a dead giveaway. 

Anyway, the youngest, who just turned eight on Saturday, had a question in his geography yesterday, 'What is the difference between a plain and a mountain?' He wrote, 'A plain can fly, a mountain cannot.'  This kid keeps me in stitches!

This photo is from last September, but since we'll be baking cookies this week too...

5. What subject do you wish you'd paid more attention to in school?

I would say history, but our history wasn't nearly as interesting as heads on pikes on Tower Bridge. It was mostly names and dates, with precious little historical fiction and biography. So maybe I wish I'd paid more attention in study hall while reading on my own.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Just in case you're not on Instagram, what's kept me from my blog was a wonderful visit to our son in Arizona, then an incredibly long road trip back to Wisconsin because Sun Country had to cancel all flights into and out of Minneapolis due to a fierce April blizzard that dropped about 18 inches of snow. After getting no help from Sun Country (who never answered our 500 phone calls - presumably because they were inundated with calls and had absolutely no way of helping everyone), we decided to rent a car at the Phoenix airport and drive home. (Yes, we got a refund for that portion of our flight.) Mr. C. and son drove north while I collected blood clots in my legs. (not really). :-)

That's 27 hours of road time. I will never do that again. It's a ridiculous road trip when driving straight through and only stopping for food and fuel.

So I asked a blogging (now Instagram) friend (@j_on_tour) from northern England where he would be if he drove for 27 hours from his home town. This is the map he sent me.

He wrote back, 'Pompeii!!'  I doubt he'll be driving straight through to Pompeii any time soon.

And do visit his blog, ' www.jayzspaze.blogspot.com' and his Instagram account. He has fantastic photos there. You'll enjoy them, I promise. The most recent has been a series from St. Andrews, Scotland.

Boothill Cemetery,

Tombstone, Arizona

***

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Smokey

Celebrate That Fact and Pray for Them and Teach Your Heart Out

 Durham Cathedral

A couple of things that keep me sane during Wisconsin's long winters are reading good books and watching interesting YouTube videos.

Because I thought it was such a great answer, I transcribed part of a YouTube video of a Wheaton Theology Conference. A young person had asked the question,

"Is teaching in the local church worth devoting my life to?"

N.T. Wright's answer was the following:

"Of course it’s worth devoting your life to teaching in the local church, if that is your primary calling. For some people, that is their primary calling.Some wonderful great teachers have devoted themselves to this. You just don’t know.  Who are these people you’re teaching? You have no idea what God is going to do through the glimmer of new insight that by God’s grace will come through your teaching into their hearts and lives.

"I live in a part of the world where we honor people like Cuthbert and Aiden and Bede. And Bede was a little boy in the monastery in Jarrow when they had the Plague. And the only two of them that were left were Bede as a little boy and one elderly monk. And they would sing the Psalms together. And Bede grew up to be the single great scholar in the Europe of his day : an astronomer, mathematician, Biblical commentator, etc. etc. etc.

"Who would have thought, seeing that monastery on the wild coast of northeast England, that here would be somebody that would be this great teacher, you just don’t know who you’ve got in your congregation. Celebrate that fact and pray for them and teach your heart out."

***

And since Wright is from northern England in the first place, and since he was Bishop of Durham from 2003-2010, he was able to pull that nifty little history lesson right off the tip of his brain, without hesitation. I loved that answer.

N.T. Wright is currently Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland -  and author of a gazillion books, of which Surprised by Hope, The Day The Revolution Began, Jesus and the Victory of God, The Meal Jesus Gave Us, Simply Christian...are just a mere fraction, and all worth keeping in your home library.

 

(You will find other posts about Cuthbert, Bede, and possibly even N.T. Wright if you type their names in the search box on my sidebar.) 

Have a blessed Lord's Day, friends.

Hunting for Spring

Mr. C. and I are tired of waiting for spring to arrive in NW Wisconsin and are heading to Arizona to visit our oldest son for a week. Tonight there were three deer under our bird feeder, having trudged their way through the snow to try to find something to eat. I wish they liked meatballs and rice. I have some I'll have to throw out before we head out of here tomorrow.

 

Another son will be staying at our house, taking care of Tommy & Smokey, which involves feeding, watering, and throwing mice around - oh. and the litter boxes, all four of them. It is so nice to be able to leave and know that the house and kitties will be taken care of. 

 Note the silo's hat is on crooked

Most of the photos in this post are from southern Wisconsin and we have a lot more snow  at our house. The following photo was taken March 31 and we've had a snowstorm since then that just added to the depth (of despair).

 Always winter and never Christmas

 This photo was taken in Coon Prairie, WI

Note the snowmobile. I was hunting for a satellite dish in this photo, not an uncommon sight in Wisconsin backyards, but don't see one. There is, however, a wood pile on the right, a pleasant sight to anyone who burns wood. And that reminds me: the last time we visited this area, we purchased (from an Amish friend) an entire pickup load of slab wood for our wood burning stove, and were charged only $15. That was certainly $15 well spent! We just burned our last stick of wood last weekend, so it's time to use the gas furnace or head south/or both.

Tommy & Smokey

 I came across this sign in Jackson County, on the way home from Westby.

Have a great weekend, everyone!
See you next time.

***


Check out my natural, handcrafted vegan soap!
Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

Heavenly Honeysuckle

Natural Vegan Soap




...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at
 
HomemadeSoapNSuch


and at


Our ETSY Shop

NOTE: My shops will be closed until April 16.

Join me on Instagram: @cranberrymorning 

He is Risen! Let All Creation Rejoice!

He is risen!

Let all creation rejoice!

'After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.  For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.   

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. 

Come, see the place where he lay.  Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”  So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.  Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.  Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”' - Matthew 28:1-10

Christ the Lord is risen!

Alleluia! 

 What language shall I borrow
to thank Thee, dearest Friend,
for this, Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever!
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never,
outlive my love for Thee.

 

With a heart full of gratitude and awe,

P.S. And for extra credit, you can read the article, from which these excerpts were taken, from an Easter 2008 message by the [then] Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright, entitled, 'The Uncomfortable Truth About Easter':

"Easter has burst into our world, the world of space, time and matter, the world of real history and real people and real life, but our minds and imaginations are too small to contain it, so we do our best to put the sea into a bottle and fit the explosive fact of the resurrection into the possibilities we already know about."

"Christianity cannot be contained in the vague religiosity of late-modern Britain, any more than Mary or Peter or John could grasp the truth by saying that someone had taken away the body. Easter is what it is because, together with Jesus’ crucifixion, it is the central event of world history, the moment towards which everything was rushing and from which everything emerges new."

Read the entire article HERE.

Have a Blessed Resurrection Sunday.

He is Risen!

Let All Creation Rejoice!